Everything Changes
by lightningedge
Summary: 2 months have passed since Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura retrieved Sasuke from Orochimaru. Everything was back to normal now. Tsunade offers a WTF solo Sranked mission for Sakura and she accepts it? Pairings:mainSasuSaku ShikaIno slight NaruHina...R
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto-sama owns it. But I do wish I own Kakashi-kun…

Chapter 1: Typical Team 7

It's been 2 months since Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura retrieved Sasuke from Orochimaru. On the first month, Naruto and Sasuke took the Chuunin exams and passed the test. And on the second month, they spent missions with Kakashi and Sakura; it was really like the old team 7.

"Kakashi-sensei, your LATE again!" yelled Naruto as their late sensei arrived with a poof on the red bridge where they always meet.

"Aa… you see," Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "I ran into an old lady this morning who was stuck on a puddle so-"

"Yeah right," Sakura rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms on her chest and leaned on the handle of the bridge. "There wasn't any rain, how could there be a puddle?"

"Eh, Sakura, your getting sharper," Kakashi tried to change the subject. The three teenagers glared at him, which caused him to sweatdrop.

"Flattery won't get you anywhere, Sensei," replied Sakura as she turned her back on him.

"Why don't we just get on with the mission?" Sasuke was getting annoyed. As if being 4 hours late was not enough.

"Right, let's go to Godaime's office then," Kakashi walked and led the was to the tower and thought _"Just like the old time, except they grew up more maturely than before; Sakura seems to have matured most. She has already stop asking Sasuke out on dates and concentrates more on training."_

Yes, it's true. Sakura has finally stopped asking Sasuke on dates ever since he came back from the Sound Village. She can't deny the fact that she still have feeling for this good-looking shinobi, but she decided to dedicate most of her time on training to meet his acknowledgement instead. And also, she wants to be of good use to Konoha.

"Yoshi! On today's mission, I'm going to kick some butts and show YOU, Sasuke, my true strength," bragged Naruto as they climbed up the tower.

"Whatever, dobe."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME, SASUKE-TEM-?" Naruto was going to say "teme" when a fist landed on his face and broke his nose.

"Be quiet, guys" said Sakura, the owner of the fist.

"_Typical team 7,"_ Kakashi thought as he grinned under his mask.

They met a door and Kakashi opened it. The door revealed a figure sleeping on top of a pile of paperwork. Tsunade-sama is slacking off again…

"Tsunade-baachan! What are you doing sleeping on your paperworks? And you even call yourself Hokage!"yelled Naruto. He was going to jump on top of her if only Kakashi didn't grab the back of his collar.

"Wha-what's going on?" Tsunade seems to have just awoken from her slumber.

"Nani! You weren't even listening to me when I –" Naruto was cut off by two punches on both side of his face. The first had belongs to Sakura and the other hand belongs surprisingly to Sasuke.

"Shut up, dobe!" Sasuke tried to make his voice sound normal. "Hokage-sama, what's the mission for today?" Sasuke was growing more inpatient.

"Oh! That," Tsunade took a folder from the piles of paperwork and handed it to Kakashi. "It's a D rank mission. Your mission is to…"

"NANI! D-RANKED MISSION!"

"Naruto no Baka, you shouldn't talk to Tsunade-shishou like that." Inner Sakura thought, "you have no idea how she is when she gets pissed off." 

"Be quiet, Naruto. Let Tsunade-shishou finish first."

"Geez, it's really tiresome to explain when you are always being interrupted." Tsunade sat up straight on her chair and continued, "I don't feel like explaining anymore. Take a look at the folder and it will give you a brief background on your mission."

Kakashi opened the folder. Naruto got on the back of Kakashi and peek on the folder by looking at it from his shoulder. Sakura and Sasuke leaned on Kakashi's left and right arm to see the information on the folder.

There was a long moment of silence. But it was broken when the three chuunins yelled together, "WHAT THE HECK-!"

END OF CHAPTER ONE

Please don't forget to review. This is my first fic so please tell me if I had made any mistakes. Feel free to comment anything at all. BTW, is the fic good? Tell me if my story sucks… I promise I wont get mad! Any review would be appreciated as long as it made sense.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The sun shone brightly today, a perfect day for Konoha. The weather is perfect. Though the sun is bright it wasn't too hot. The breeze felt very soothing, it went harmoniously with the sun. Ah… what a perfect day for team 7's mission… flower picking?

"This is going to be boring…" groaned Naruto as they walked on the countryside. "Of all the missions, why does it have to be flower picking?"

Apparently, they are now on their way to the garden where Tsunade-sama sent them. For team 7, this is the most boring mission ever. For goodness sake, their already chuunins! Not to mention Sakura is already considered a highly ranked chuunin because of her high level medical jutsus. These kinds of missions should be given to genins; these are for low-level genins such as rookie genins.

Naruto sighed again, which made Sasuke sigh too. Seeing both of her teammates so down just reminded her about their lame mission, Sakura could not help but sigh as well. Kakashi saw his team so down, he couldn't help but sigh silently behind his mask.

"Aw men!" whined Naruto as he kicked one of the rocks on the ground. "Can't we walk any faster? I want this mission to be finished quickly so that I can go back to training."

"Aa" Sasuke, for once has to agree with Naruto. He has more important things to do rather than pick flowers.

"Tsunade-sama had been giving us low-level missions recently, no?" Kakashi thought of starting up a conversation to risen up his team's mood. It was really unusual that their team would be so quiet. Normally, Naruto would be bragging about how he will kick the enemy's ass while Sasuke will use some short words to insult Naruto. From there, the two would start fighting. And that's where Sakura would come and quiet them down.

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled, "if ever we get another boring mission tomorrow, I will have to start an argument with Obachan."

"I doubt that it will do any good to talk to her," Sakura sighed as she played with her hair. "You haven't seen her in a bad mood yet, have you? I have to warn you that it's not a good idea at all to piss her off."

"Demo-"

"I know! These missions are totally lame…" Sakura rolled her eyes. "We're already chuunins, don't we deserve better missions than these. Don't we deserve at least a C-ranked mission?"

"A-re? Sakura, you seem to be more motivated than before," Kakashi patted her head.

"Of course, Sensei!" Sakura played with her kunai absent-mindedly with her right pointing finger. "Low ranked missions are equal to low salary. A super high ranked mission is equal to more cash."

The three boys walking behind her sweat dropped at her statement. Being Godaime's apprentice for two and a half years, they were glad that Sakura wasn't influenced by Tsunade's obsession over gambling. But, Sakura did grow quite an obsession over money though…

Sakura continued speaking freely as they walk. "Mou… I'm having bad luck with money lately. Heck, my mangas are not even selling."

You didn't hear- or rather, you didn't read wrong. When Sakura trained under Godaime, Sakura didn't have much time to go to missions. To make some extra cash, Sakura decided to submit some of her made up drawings to a publishing center. One of the editor in chief found her stories and drawings somewhat interesting so she accepted Sakura's creation. After a few months, her manga series became a hit in the Fire Country. But now, she didn't have much ideas and lacked inspirations.

"Hehe, Sakura-chan…" Naruto made a sheepish smile. "You just need some inspiration. You know, maybe… we can go out together. Who knows, you might get some good ideas for your manga."

"Naruto," Sakura called calmly, "If you're asking me out on a date, then my answer is a…."

"Yes?"

"No" Sakura replied shortly. "And anyway, the manga series that I'm writing about is a shounen manga. It's mostly about fighting and stuffs like that. I might include some romance in future series, but it probably will only be a slight touch."

"Tch, dobe."

"NANI!" yelled Naruto furiously as he pointed a finger straight to Sasuke's face. "Let's see you ask a girl out on a date."

Sasuke smirked. His hands on his pockets, he continued to walk.

"What's that smirk for?"

Sakura giggled.

"What?"

"I-iie, never mind…"

"What is it, Sakura-chan?"

"N-nothing…"

"Come on, Sakura-chan."

"_Naruto could be so naïve sometimes."_ Kakashi sighed. "Sakura, why don't you just say it? He probably won't take it too offensively, anyway."

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Your too naïve, Naruto" Sakura sweatdropped. "How should I say this? To make it short and simple," Sakura sighed and continue "the girl that will turn Sasuke down does not exist."

"Oh, your right" Naruto meant to said it softly so that only Sakura could hear it. But unknown to him, Kakashi and Sasuke were also listening. "Mou, Sakura-chan. I was just bragging in front of Sasuke to make myself look cool…"

The rest of the 3 sweatdropped when they heard him say that. They continued their walk as they converse about different things until they arrived their destination.

When Sakura saw the garden, she was speechless. Lots of memories came flashing back as she look at the garden full of beautiful flowers."

"Ne. Daijobu desu ka?" Naruto asked her as he waved his hand in front of her face.

"…"

"Sakura-chan"

"…"

"Sakura-chan!"

"…"

"Sakura-CHAN!"

"…"

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

"H-huh?" this time Sakura came back to reality. "Did you call my name?"

"Are you feeling okay?" Kakashi asked his student with a worried tone.

"I'm fine." Sakura gave his worried teammates a reassuring smile. "I just remembered some memorable memories from the past."

Her 3 teammates looked confusedly at each other.

END OF CHAPTER 2 

Author's note:

Don't forget to review and please tell me if my fiction sucks. Feel free to suggest or comment anything.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you feeling okay?" Kakashi asked his student with a worried tone. 

"I'm fine." Sakura gave her worried teammates a reassuring smile. "I just remembered some memorable memories from the past."

Chapter 3: "Cosmos" 

Sakura saw their confused face and found them very amusing, especially Sasuke's face. _"Sasuke-kun looks so kawaii when he's confused!" thought Inner Sakura. _Then she answered. "I just remembered that I have come here before."

"You have?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yeah," Sakura started to explain. "When we were still at the academy, there was one time when only kunoichis were the ones allowed to go to this certain fieldtrip here. You guys, as I can still remember, had to stay in the academy to have shuriken training with Iruka-sensei. Anyway, the fieldtrip was training for female ninjas, according to our sensei. I can still remember the way she explained how important this training is to us. She said, _"As female ninjas, we must not only be skilled in ninjutsu, but also possess a wide amount of knowledge and culture." _Then she pressed her glasses like this," she pressed an imaginary pair of eyeglasses up to her nose, "then she continued, _"If you can sneak into enemy territory and pass for a normal woman, then spying will not be impossible."_ Demo…" Sakura paused for a while as she made a childish pout, "I really sucked in her subject. I barely passed in her subject when we were still in the academy. I was even scolded by her once that intelligence is nothing if you don't know how to apply it…"

Surprisingly, the 3 shinobis seemed very interested in her "story" and was motioning for her to continue.

"And that's the end of it," Sakura crossed her arms. "I think we should get on our mission now."

"She's right," agreed Kakashi. He took out 3 pieces of paper and three baskets from his backpack and handed them to each of his students. "Those papers contains list different kinds of flowers, your mission is to pick those flowers and meet me back here as soon as you completed the list. Each of you have different list, so I guess you guys will have to split-up." He sat down on the smooth soothing grass as he took out something from his pouch. (You'll never guess what he took out… his Icha Icha Paradise book.) He opened his book and started to read.

"I'm going," said Sasuke shortly. And with that, he ran rapidly toward the woods and disappeared from their sight.

"I'm going too," Sakura walked slowly away from her sensei and Naruto as she waved goodbye with her backhand.

"I'm the one left…so…I guess I'm going too…" said Naruto uncertainly as he ran off somewhere.

* * *

Sakura took her list from her pocked and read it in her head. 

_40 Lilies_

_40 White Orchids_

_30 Pink Orchids_

_30 Purple Orchids_

She looked around her and tried to enjoy the view and peace and quiet for a while. It really looks beautiful. The place was bloomed different kinds of flower, some she can identify, but she didn't recognize most of them. With the sun shining brightly, they look even more beautiful. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply and let the wind blow short pink locks. She opened her eyes and whispered confidently. "This mission is a piece of cake. After saying that she rushed to the nearest pond and gathered some lilies. Thanks to the lessons she took when she was still in the academy, she finished in less than an hour and went back to their meeting place where Kakashi-sensei is reading his book.

* * *

Naruto seems out of luck today. He has been searching for nearly an hour already. He took a look on the list again as he scratched his head frustratedly. 

_30 Sunflowers_

_40 Petunias_

_100 Fujibakama_

So far, he only got 30 sunflowers, 20 Petunias and no Fujibakama at all. _"Geez," _he thought._ "I don't even know what a Fujibakama is."_

* * *

Sasuke seems to be having better luck than Naruto. He took out his list and stared at it again for a while. 

_30 Daffodils_

_20 Blue Roses_

_40 White Roses_

_50 Red Roses_

At least he knew what roses look like. How can he not? His fangirls gives some to him every Valentine's Day. As for daffodils… he didn't know what it is…so… he'll leave that problem until later. He still hasn't found enough blue roses yet.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm back!" Sakura called out as she waved her right hand. 

"Back so soon?" he said without taking his eyes off his book.

"Yup." Sakura smiled brightly.

"I see."

"Anou…"

"Nani?"

"I'm going to the other side of the woods for a while. Will it be okay?"

"Sure. Leave the flowers here and you free to go."

"Okay! I'll be back soon," grinned Sakura as she skidded off to her destination.

* * *

Sakura ran beside the river, chasing the river's flow. Why she was doing that, she had no idea. She just felt like it. She stopped for a while and stared at her reflection. Her hair was kept short after it was cut on her first chuunin exam, her forehead protector on her head, serving as a hair band. She wore red sleeveless shirt, a brown mini-skirt with slits on both sides and a silver belt buckling up her skirt. Her kunai pouch is attached on her right lower thigh. For her shoes, she wore black knee high boots. Sakura sighed. She has changed a lot since the last time she came here. When she came here before, she was still being protected by Ino and was always being looked down. _"Look at how time flies-**TIME**!"_ She just remembered that she has to go back to their meeting place. She did a back flip, as she landed on a branch, she started to run back.

* * *

"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto was crying animestyle as he saw the pink haired kunoichi. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Gomene if Imade you guys wait…" Sakura saw her teammates waiting for her impatiently at their meeting place.

"That's alright. Anyway, I need your help." Grinned Naruto as he pleaded in front of Sakura.

"Help?"

"I still haven't finished my list yet."

"You haven't? Then what are you still doing here?"

"I don't know how this flower looks like."

"I guess you should help these two out in their problem." Kakashi scratched his head as he talked without removing his face from his perverted book.

"Sasuke-kun too?" asked Sakura.

"Hn."

"So what's missing on your list?" Sakura asked both of her teammates as they left their sensei that was busy reading his book.

"Daffodils." Answered Sasuke.

With his statement, Sakura could not help but frown. _"Sasuke-kun… those were the flowers that I always used togive you when I visited you in the hospital…how could you not know what it looks like?" _she thought sadly. _"I guess he didn't noticed the flowers at all."_

"Is something wrong, Sakura-chan?"

"N-no,nothing's wrong." Sakura forced a smile on her face as she shrugged her sad feelings off and walked towards a flowerbed full of daffodils. "Here, these are daffodils. How about you Naruto?"

"I need 100 Fujibakama."

"…"

"What's wrong?"

"There are Fujibakama everywhere" said Sakura in a boring tone.

"Oh, so where are they?"

"Dobe" Sasuke was done picking the daffodils and picked a small weed-like flower. "This is a Fujibakama."

"Sasuke-TEME!" yelled Naruto angrily. "Of course I know what a Fujibakama is. I was just testing you."

"Riiiiiight…" replied the other two slowly and disbelievingly. They knew Naruto too well; they knew that he was just lying to cover up his idioticness.

As they waited for Naruto to pick some Fujibakama, Sakura looked at her surroundings and saw a beautiful cosmos that was half open. _"Cosmos. Brings back memories."_

_Flashback:_

6 year old Ino and Sakura were sitting on the grass. Sakura looked down sadly and said, "If Ino-chan is a Cosmos, then I'm probably just a Fujibakama."

"_What are you talking about?" Ino said, proudly. "If you ask me, you're not even a flower. You're just a bud."_

"_Haha… you're right" Sakura forced a laugh, but deep inside her, she felt that very sad. "Ino, if I'm just a bud, then why did you give me this ribbon." She pointed the red ribbon above her head._

"_Hehe… That's because," Ino smiled at her. "I thought it would be a waste if you ended up as a bud. A flower is meaningless unless it blooms, right? And it could grow into…a flower even more beautiful than a cosmos."_

_For once in her life, Sakura felt happy. She was never acknowledged by anyone before. She felt so happy that she cried._

_End of flashback_

"I'm done!" Naruto said, brightly. "Let's go now!"

"Hn."

"Okay," Sakura was about to go, but she felt the urge of picking the cosmos up. So she did it.

"What are you going to do with that?" Naruto asked as curiosity overwhelmed his face. Sasuke seemed curious as well.

"Nothing really," Sakura putted the cosmos on her medicine pouch and tried to change the subject. "Hey, after the mission, why don't we all catch some ramen at Ichiraku's?"

"Sounds nice." Naruto looked excited.

"To make things more interesting let's make a bet."

"A bet?"

"Yeah, the last one to reach Kakashi-sensei treats us all." Sakura turned her back on them. "What are you guys waiting for?" After saying that, she gathered some chakras on her feet and released it all. She was running really fast, it was evenbeyond Lee's speed without weights on his feet.

Sasuke smirked and started to run as well. As for Naruto, he was still dumbfounded. By the time he realized it, Sakura was already 20 meters away from him and Sasuke was already 10 meters away from him. "AHHHH! No fair!"

Thanks to Sakura's great chakra control, she got to Kakashi-sensei's first. She was followed by Sasuke,then Naruto came in last.

At Ichiraku's ramen house…

"It's really nice of Naruto to treat us ramen, ne?" Sakura grinned. Then, she slurped some noodles quietly.

"Hn," Sasuke smirked as he ate his ramen quietly.

"Yeah," said Kakashi who has already finished eating ramen as soon as his order came. Like usual, none of his students go to see what's beneath his mask again.

"Mou… Sakura-chan, you cheated," said Naruto, quietly as he waited for his 5th bowl of ramen.

"First of all, I did not imply any rule that says "no using of chakra"." Sakura sipped some soup and continued. "Second, it wasn't my fault that you didn't think about using Kage Bunshin to stop me and Sasuke-kun. And third, it's not called cheating, it's called out-smarting. I ninja should look underneath the underneath, ne, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi-sensei nodded in agreement while smiling underneath his mask.

"Dead last."

"Nan-!"

"SASUKE-KUN!"

Who could that be? No, it wasn't Sakura. You guessed it! It was Ino. She was accompanied by her teammates and sensei, Shikamaru, Chouji and Asuma-sensei.

"What a coincidence!" continued Ino as she hugged Sasuke tightly. She looked at Sakura, her voice changed into a teasing voice."Oh, and hello to you too Big Forehead. What's this? Finish so soon?"

"Hi Ino-pig." Sakura stood up from her stool. "And yeah, I'm finish now. I still have thingsto take care of in the hospital."

"The hospital? Don't you think that's a little troublesome."

"If it's for the moneythen I guess not." She turned to her teammates. "See you guys tomorrow." Then she turned to Ino and her teammates. "See you guys too, I guess…"

"Yeah..."

"Sure."

"Bye then." Ino smiled proudly as for she can have Sasuke all to herself today.

Sakura turned her back on them and was about to go when she suddenly remembered the Cosmos she picked up earlier. She gave it to Ino and said, "Don't ask, just keep it." Both of them gave each other a smile and Sakura left to go to the hospital give the people there some hand, and also to earn more cash…

"Hey, guys," Naruto turned to his fellow shinobis.

"What?" asked Shikamaru, lazily.

"Can someone explain things to me? I feel kinda left out here."

"You're not the only one, dobe."

"That's rivalry," Kakashi explained.

"Is that so?"

"I guess."

**END OF CHAPTER 3**

Thanks for reviewing V-sakura, really appreciated it!

To my dear readers (if there are any),

I just want to make a clarification that the "flower picking" is not the mission that was mentioned in the summary. The solo mission will take place later on. I would like to make my readers see first how normal things were going until Sakura gets on with the mission. Is it okay with you guys? I hope so...

Anyway, don't forget to review. Any kind of review will be useful to me as long as it made sense.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto, Kishimoto-sama owns it.

**Chapter 4: Realization**

A small stream of sunlight passed through the small opening of the window's curtain and landed on a sleeping face, to be more specific, it was Haruno Sakura's face. She still seemed fast asleep despite the bright sunlight on her face. That's probably because she had a rough night at the hospital last night. Probably? Darn, it really _was_ hell last night! 8 ANBU squad members barely crawled back to Konoha alive; 3 of them having fatal injuries and the other 5 received several wounds. The medic nins were all unavailable due to the fact that they were all on mission. The doctors in the hospital had a day-off that day. That leaves 70 nurses, 244 stable patients, 8 injured ANBU members and a very furious Sakura in the hospital. To make things worse, Shizune went with Tsunade-sama to the nearest casino earlier this evening. 50 nurses had to take care of the other patients in the hospital. That leaves 20 nurses to help Sakura with their unstable patients. She worked hard all evening and everything went smoothly for her patients. As of the moment, all the 8 ANBU members are now safely sleeping on the hospital bed. Speaking of sleeping a certain kunoichi needs to wake-up now if she doesn't want to be late in meeting up with her teammates.

Sakura groaned as she forced her heavy eyelids open. She urged her body to sit up-UGH! Her body ached all over. Who wouldn't if you only slept for 3 hours after a total chakra drain? She could even barely remember how she got home.

She forced her body to cooperate with her mind and took a fast shower, changed into her normal clothes and went downstairs to prepare herself some breakfast. (lightningedge: her family? Don't ask. I'm still thinking about doing a chapter about it, though I'm not sure if I will be making one…) After tripping 5 times on the stairs, she managed to reach the kitchen alive. Not trusting her foggy mind to cook, she decided to have a slice of bread and a cold glass of milk instead.

* * *

At the meeting place… 

"Ohayou, Sasuke-teme, Saku-eh?" Naruto scanned his eyes around the bridge, looking for a certain pink-haired kunoichi. "Where's Sakura-chan?"

"How should I know?" shrugged Sasuke, he leant back on the railings of the bridge.

"Ah, there she is!" Naruto pinpointed a pink-haired girl from afar.

"OHAYOU! SAKURA-CHAN!"

As Sakura walked closer, both of her teammates noted that she was walking sloppily and her eyelids were only half-open. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her. As she walked to her usual place, which was between Sasuke and Naruto, she greeted her teammates in a rather tired tone. "Ohayou, Sasuke-kun, Naruto too." Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other. Something's obviously wrong with her.

"Daijobu-ka? Sakura-chan."

"Nande mo nai, Naruto." Sakura said in a monotone. "Just a little tired."

"Ah." Sasuke replied, acknowledging her answer.

Silence…

Silence…

Silence…

* * *

After three quiet hours… 

It was only Sakura who was able to stand the silence, probably because she was awfully tired today. You know how Naruto is, always being his noisy self, he just couldn't stand the silence. As for Sasuke, he grew quite used to his noisy surroundings that he found the unusual silence very awkward.

_Poof!_

"Yo!"

"YOUR **LATE** AGAIN!" yelled Naruto. He was so frustrated with the silence earlier that he putted all his frustration in his sensei.

"You see-"

"Don't even bother." Sasuke said shortly.

Kakashi glanced at his students. _"They seem more inpatient than usual today, aren't they?"_ But he noticed that Sakura wasn't talking at all. He looked at Sakura. She seemed normal except for her tired looking eyes. "Hey, Sakura. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Sakura sighed.

"You guys all look so down today." Kakashi commented. "But I now what will cheer you guys up."

"Try me." Said Sakura with a disbelieving tone.

"Our mission today is to escort-" before Kakashi could finish Naruto interrupted.

"Guard a feudal lord? How about a daimyo?"

"An escort mission?" Sakura thought. "This should be interesting" 

Sasuke seemed interested too.

"No, actually-"

"Who are we gonna guard then?"

"Urusai, Naruto" Sakura said as Inner Sakura took over her. "Stop interrupting if you want to know the details." Her tiredness was forgotten and excitement took over her.

"Oh, sorry."

"As I was saying, we are going to escort a person named Kaji Suzuki. He is just a common person, I guess. We are going to escort him to the other village and protect him from any thieves or gangs that we may encounter on our way there. It'll just take a 5 hour walk for us to get to his home village, but I think it would be best if we come back here tomorrow morning." Kakashi looked at students, "Anyone against it?"

"…"

"I'll take that as a no." assumed Kakashi. "We will be meeting our client at the gates of Konoha. He is probably waiting for us right now."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Naruto yelled cheerfully.

After a short walk they arrived at the gates. There was a young man standing, waiting for Team 7.

"Yo!" Kakashi said in his usual casual tone. "You must be Kaji Suzuki, I presume."

"Yes." Said the man. "And you must be Team 7." The man was around 16-19 years old. He was quite handsome. He has slightly long violet hair that blew with the wind, his eyes, deep blue in color. He face was slightly thin and very handsome. He wore a large backpack on his back, which they assumed contain his clothes.

"Meet my team," Kakashi introduced everyone. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. This is Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura."

"Pleasure meeting all of you guys."

* * *

While they were walking… 

"Kaji-san." Sakura looked at their handsome client. "Would you like me to carry your bag instead? It looks really heavy."

"Thanks, but no thanks. It's quite light, I can assure you." Replied the Suzuki as he brushed his hair with his hand. "By the way, don't call me Kaji-san. It's way too formal. Call me Suzuki instead, ne, Sakura-chan?"

"Ah…" smiled Sakura. "Suzuki-san then."

"I haven't _really_ introduced myself, have I?" Suzuki looked at Sakura. "I'm Kaji Suzuki, 17 years old, single and looking." He did his most precious killer smile to Sakura.

"_A playboy," _Inner Sakura rolled her eyes.

"_The nerve of this guy, he's trying to hit on Sakura!"_ Naruto thought. There were already plenty of other guys in Konoha that likes Sakura. Why does he have to add on the list? 

"_He is so annoying."_ Sasuke thought.

Both Naruto and Sasuke were listening to Sakura and Suzuki's conversation with disgust while at their back is their sensei, observing their reactions. And by the looks of the two of them, they seemed very annoyed with their client. All Kakashi could do was sigh.

Suzuki continued. "Did I mention that you are my type of girl?"

A slight tint of red was visible on Sakura's face as she smiled brightly. "Hehe, really now. That's very flattering. But I'm afraid my heart is already taken."

"Oh, you already have a boyfriend?"

Sakura went even redder, not because she was flattered, but because she was slightly embarrassed. "Erm… not exactly a boyfriend…"

"What do you mean?"

"I…. you see, it's really complicated… How should I put this?" Sakura didn't know how to answer Suzuki. She can't just tell him she loves Sasuke out loud; Sasuke might find her more annoying. "I-uh…." She couldn't think of anything else as of the moment so she did what first came into her mind. She pointed up the sky and said. "Look at the sky, it's so beautiful, isn't it?"

She was obviously trying to change the topic. And even though she was an outstanding Chuunin, she was a very bad actress. Somehow, Naruto felt relieved to see that Sakura is not attracted to Suzuki even though he was handsome.

"Yes, it is." Suzuki answered her. "But you still haven't answered my question. Do you-?"

"Hey"

A gangster appeared in front of them. They were all 10. One of them said "Hand over your cash if you don't want to die."

For once, Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto thought of the same thing. _"Baka."_

"Tch. You sound too confident." Sasuke said calmly

"Do you really think you could kill us?" Kakashi said coolly.

"Remember this face," Naruto yelled proudly. "I am Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next Hokage."

"_Here we go again." _Inner Sakura whined inside Sakura's head.

"Sakura, stay beside Suzuki," Kakashi ordered.

"Yeah."

Within 16 seconds flat, Kakashi took down 5 of them, while Naruto and Sasuke each took down 2. The last one went straight to Sakura. Of course, Sakura was ready for him. Sakura stood beside Suzuki calmly as he approached them; she did a fighting stance and was about to charge him when suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke appeared right in front of her and did the fighting for her.

"Heeeeey," Sakura pouted. "I wanted to do some fighting too, you know?"

"But I was just protecting you, Sakura-chan. I don't want you to get hurt." Said Naruto with a cheesy smile.

Sakura smiled at him, but deep inside she was feeling a lot of negative emotions while they walk slowly. _"Do they still think I'm weak? Even Sasuke-kun thinks so too! I have to…get stronger. You are really frustrating me to death! I-"_

"So, I was asking if you have a boyfriend earlier." Suzuki broke her out of her thoughts. "Do you have one?"

"No."

"What were you saying earlier then?"

"Let's not talk about it." Sakura said shortly.

"Okay then," Suzuki, who knows a lot about girls, need not to be told just to notice that Sakura was pissed off for some reason. He did not press on the topic.

There was a long silence as they walk. Sakura walked in front, Suzuki behind her with Naruto and Sasuke beside him, and Kakashi was behind Suzuki.

"Ne, how far are we from the village?" Naruto asked.

"About 30.64 km," Sakura answered shortly. She glanced back; she was about to open her mouth when Suzuki winked at her. She glanced back in front, hiding her blushed face from her teammates. Why on earth does Suzuki have to be so darn good-looking? If he wasn't such a playboy then he would be able to replace Sasuke in Sakura's heart.

* * *

When they reached the village…"At last," Sakura thought as she sighed with relief. Suzuki was starting to get to her nerves, he kept on asking Sakura lots of things about her love life, luckily, she was able to dodge all of them. 

"What a pity." Suzuki's face was filled with disappointment. "How time surely flies. I'm sorry to say that we have to part ways now, my dear Sakura."

"Ah."

"Bye then, don't worry, I'll visit you in Konoha it I have the time." Suzuki walked away from them.

"Bye!" yelled Sakura. "I hope that you will always be busy so that you won't be able to visit me." she added softly so that only Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto could hear her.

"I'm tired."

"We should check-in to an inn soon before it the sun sets."

"Sure."

* * *

Later that night… 

Sakura lied down inside her room. She closed her eyes and talked to her inner-self.

"He still doesn't acknowledge me." She sighed.

"Yeah, but he'll come to his senses soon, I hope."  
"I have to accept facts. I can't fantasize about him forever." 

"_But you're a manga artist, aren't you? You have to broaden your- "_

"That's different."

"But-" 

"There's no use trying to change my mind. I have finally come to a realization. And you know what that is?"

"No. What did you realize?" 

"I have realize that I have fallen deeply in love with him. I have fallen so deep that all I want is for him to be happy."

"So?" 

"Starting tomorrow, I'm giving him up."

"What! That doesn't make any sense." 

"I don't care, all I want is for Sasuke to be happy." She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

**END OF THE CHAPTER**

Did you understood this chapter? And did you understand what Sakura meant when she wanted to give-up Sasuke? Please tell me if you dont understand. I was really in a major dilema when I wrote this so please excuse it for being a little angsty. I promise that the next chappie would be a lot better than this one.

And also I would like to thank the ff for reviewing:

v-sakura

Angelbornnhell

Haou'sAnjul

Shinobi Darkbreak

Sorry if there were some gramatical errors, I've noticed it too. But please try to bear with it. BTW, dont forget to review. And I need your honest opinions. If you dont like it, please tell me so that I can changemy mistakessomehow. What do you think of my style of writing and the story as well? Another BTW, I might not be able to update soon 'coz our PT is coming up soon. Tch, chemistry totally sucks! Hope you enjoyed reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Dislaimer:** I dont own Naruto and any other characters except Suzuki.

**Small note before reading:** As I think you all know, this is my first fic. It has occured to me just now that some of you may not understand some Japanese terms. So... here's some terms and translations that I've used in this chapter:

Haraheta- I'm hungry

Itadakimasu- a phrase used by japanese before they eat

Baka- idiot

Urusai- shut up

Kuso- darn it

Yatta- Yehey

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 5: Mission Briefing!**

Team 7 was sitting on a table of a restaurant just beside the inn where they slept in last night. They were waiting for their breakfast that they have just ordered a while ago.

"Haraheta!" whined Naruto.

Sakura cracked her knuckles, it probably meant that she was getting inpatient and Naruto should shut up.

"Sakura, it's still early. That's no way to start a morning." Kakashi tried to cool Sakura down.

"What did I do?" Sakura said innocently. "Is knuckle cracking now illegal?"

"Haha, very funny,"

"I wasn't joking." Sakura said in a very dangerous tone.

"Oh, well…I…" Kakashi-sensei didn't know what to say. He knew very well how Sakura is when she gets pissed off.

"Just kidding!" Sakura suddenly smiled brightly.

Kakashi, along with Naruto and Sasuke, sweatdropped with relief.

"Here are your orders!" said the waitress as she putted the tray on the table and distributed their food. "Enjoy!" with that, she walked away.

"Itadakimasu!"

Team 7 ate their food quickly and left the village as soon as they finished.

* * *

On their way back… 

"Heh! That Suzuki guy sure was a pain in the butt." Naruto said as he scratched his nose with his finger. "I sure hope we never get to see him again."

"If you ask me, I would rather go out with him than with you."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "You're so mean Sakura-chan!" He cried anime style.

"If he wasn't such a playboy, then I would have asked him out on a date myself."

"_What's this? Sakura is planning to go out with a boy that is not Sasuke? She really has matured a lot. Or…has she given up? Nah!" Kakashi shrugged_ the thought off immediately.

"No way! What does he have that I don't have?" asked Naruto, pouting.

"Let's see," Sakura made a face as if she was thinking very hard. "Good looks, good fashion sense, good choice of words and last but not least…cool and smooth moves." She saw Naruto's face fell and quickly added, "Don't worry, I like just the way you are. If you would have acted anything like that it'll probably give me the chills all over my spine."

"Thank you,' Naruto grinned. But after a few seconds of thinking, his face fell and whined, "heeeeeey, was that suppose to be a compliment or an insult?"

"Ahehehe," Sakura did a 'V' sign with her two fingers that meant 'peace'. "But honestly," she paused for a while then slightly blushed, "don't you think his smile was quite hot?"

The 3 shinobis sweatdropped. _"What's wrong with her today? She seemed to be changing her moods every so often." _They just couldn't understand their female teammate today.

"But you just rejected him yesterday, didn't you?" asked Naruto.

"I did."

"Then-"

"I said he had a hot smile, you didn't hear me say anything about me liking that guy, did you?"

"Yatta!" Naruto smiled brightly. "I'm so relieved to hear that you don't like him."

"Don't get too hyper about that," Kakashi advised him. "When we get back, we still have to go to Hokage-sama's office. And we might still be assigned on a mission as soon as we get there. Save you stamina for later."

Their journey home wasn't exactly peaceful because Naruto and Sasuke argued a lot. Kakashi watched them argue and was slightly amused with their childish argument. Then Sakura? She was in her own little world, preoccupied with certain things.

"_I need to be stronger, not for Sasuke-kun, but for myself."_ Sakura thought. _"Everyone thinks that I'm still as weaklike I used to be. I need to prove to them that I'm not the crybaby that I used to be. I've also been concentrating on Medical jutsu lately that I've neglected Genjutsu and Taijutsu. But how am I going to train? I-"_

"Sakura," Sasuke called her with his calm voice.

She snapped back to reality. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sakura asked in a curious tone.

"You were staring at me blankly. I thought you were going to say something."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Sasuke-teme." Naruto pointed his finger right in front of Sasuke's face. "Why on earth would _my_ Sakura be staring at you?"

"How should I know, Naruto no baka?"

"What did you call me?"

"Didn't you hear me? I called you BAKA."

"You-"

"URUSAI!" Sakura yelled as she punched the tree that was coincidentally beside her. The poor tree trunk was smashed into tiny tree chunks. And her 2 teammates quickly quieted down after seeing this. Kakashi simply observed what his students were doing.

The rest of the trip was quiet, probably because of Sakura. Not even the noisiest ninja in Konoha, Naruto, has spoken a word after Sakura shutted them up.

At last, they have finally arrived at the gates of Konoha. Naruto was dying to go for another mission so he practically dragged Sasuke and Sakura to the tower while Kakashi was being dragged by one of Naruto's Kage Bunshins. When they arrived at the tower, Naruto dismissed his Kage Bunshin and Tsunade-sama sitting on his desk with her chin on her hand.

"How was the mission?" Tsunade asked Kakashi.

"It went along fine, Hokage-sama." Answered Kakashi in a polite manner.

"There are no more missions for you today," Tsunade said it in a lazy manner.

"No way!" Naruto and Sakura whined together.

"Oh, well," Sakura put both her hands on her back and said. "I don't think I have anything to do here, so…. I'll probably drop by in the hospital and-"

"Have you forgotten?" asked Tsunade. "I've given you a week off so that you can rest. I think you've overdone yourself the other night. Though I'm really proud of you, Sakura. You were able to do 8 continuous operations successfully. "

_"That must've been the reason why Sakura was a bit off yesterday morning, must've been exhausted."_ Thought Sasuke.

"Oh, right." Sakura replied.

"Ne, Sakura-chan." Naruto asked her casually. "Since your not busy this afternoon, how about a date?"

"Nah, but thanks anyway," Sakura simply smiled at Naruto sweetly. Team 7 was about to leave but then Tsunade stopped them.

"Wait," Tsunade called them. She saw all of them walking back and quickly said. "No, I was referring to Sakura." Her face turned serious and motioned the other guys to go. "I need to talk to Sakura about something." But Naruto's face was full of curiosity and Tsunade simply sighed. "Alright, I guess all of you can stay and listen."

"What is it all about, Tsunade-shishou? It seems like a serious matter."

"I have a mission for you, Sakura," said Tsunade as she shoved her hands on her drawer, probably looking for something. "This is an S-ranked solo missio-".

"**WHAT THE FUCK!"** Naruto yelled. "An S-ranked solo mission for Sakura? What is it all about?"

Sasuke elbowed Naruto's stomach. Then he muttered. "Shut up and stop interrupting."

Tsunade cleared her throat and continued. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, I have a solo mission for Sakura." She took out a blue scroll from her drawer. She unscrolled it and showed it to her listeners. "As you can see, this scroll contains peace treaty. Your mission, Sakura, is to deliver it."

"Where?" Sasuke asked. He seemed very keen to know every detail about her mission.

"To the Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water and other countries that you may encounter on your way."

"What do you mean by that, Tsunade-baachan?"

"Your mission not a simple delivery mission, you're mission is also to enhance our alliances towards our allied country and create other alliances as you explored the world."

"Exactly how long is this mission going to take?" Kakashi asked her.

"About a year or so." Tsunade said firmly. "It really depends on how the mission goes."

"A year!" whined Naruto.

"Are you sure it's alright to put Sakura on an S-rank mission?" Kakashi said. "It's not that I was underestimating her, but these kinds of missions should be left to ANBU members don't you think? She's not even a Jounin yet."

"Unfortunately, we are now quite short of ANBUS." Tsunade smiled. "But don't worry. This mission is perfectly safe."

"Then why is it S-ranked?" Sasuke asked.

"It's because this mission is top secret."

"But why is it that Sakura gets this mission?" Sasuke continued to question her.

"Actually, Shizune made a suggestion of drawing slots." Tsunade explained. "So we included all the chuunins and jounins. Coincidentally, I picked Sakura's name… so … she gets to go on the mission. Anyway, what do you think about the mission? You can decline it if you want to, Sakura."

All their attentions were turned to the pink-haired kunoichi. Sakura remained quiet.

Since the mission briefing started, she was lost in her thoughts, _"A mission for me? Nevertheless, a solo mission? An S-ranked one too! One year? That's too long… I don't want to be gone for that long… Should I accept it?"_

"I… well… uhm…"

"You don't have to decide now," Tsunade looked straight into Sakura's eyes. "I'll give you one week to decide, would that be enough time?"

"W-well… I… g-guess so…"

"But-"

"Be quiet, Naruto. I am not asking for you opinion. Sakura, I will be waiting for your decision. That's all. You may all leave now."

Outside the tower, the members of team 7 were walking quietly, trying not to talk about the "mission" when suddenly…

"SASUKE-KUN!"

Ino and the rest of team 8 were walking towards them.

Ino ran quickly towards them and hugged Sasuke. "Hello BIG FOREHEAD."

"Hi Ino-pig, Shikamaru, Chouji and Asuma-sensei."

"Yo!"

"How troublesome."

"Hn."

"Hello."

"Yeah."

"Let's get some barbeque already. I'm getting pretty hungry."

"Geez, Chouji." Ino pulled one of Chouji's ears and said. "Is food the only thing you care about? Let's have a little chat with Team 7 for a while."

"You mean Sasuke." Sakura said in a boring tone.

"Whatever," Shikamaru rolled his eyes as he glanced at Ino. "Make your little chat short so that I can go home earlier." Then he face Sakura. "Same place same time tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Hey! What's that all about?" Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked at Sakura and Shikamaru.

"What's what?" Shikamaru said in his usual lazy tone.

"Kuso, Shikamaru! You're a traitor. Don't tell me you're going out with _my_ Sakura." Naruto said furiously, pointing his finger straight on the lazy shinobi's face.

"Naruto no Baka!" Sakura delivered a strong punch to Naruto, which sent him straight to the floor. "For your information, I am not going out with him. And I am not yours!"

"Yeah," Agreed Shikamaru. "Dating is too tiring. Going out with troublesome girls and stuffs…"

"Did you just say girls are troublesome?" A vein popped out of Ino as she grabbed Shikamaru's collar.

Sakura, who is usually not rough with other boys except for Naruto, had grown quite use to Shikamaru's opinion towards girl since she had spent almost every Saturday with him.

"No," Shikamaru muttered, knowing that he will just earn a punch if he would say "yes". Ino immediately let go of Shikamaru and went straight to Sasuke again.

"Anyway," said Chouji as he opened a bag of potato chips that he took from who-knows-where, "what is the "Same time same place" all about."

"We play Shogi." Shikamaru said plainly.

Everyone, excluding had a confused face. Upon seeing this, Shikamaru said. "It's too troublesome to explain." Everyone, excluding Sakura again, glared at Shikamaru. "Geez, you explain it, Sakura."

Sakura sighed. "Fine. This is what happened a few months ago:

_It was a nice Saturday so Sakura decided to take a stroll around Konoha. She simply walked wherever her feet would take her as Sakura admired the lovely blue sky. Her place took her to a nice grass plain, and to her surprise, Shikamaru was lying there with a board of Shogi. _

_"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru glanced at the pink haired kunoichi._

"_Nothing really, was just walking around. How about you?"_

"_I was suppose to meet up with Asuma-sensei and play some Shogi with him. But he went off on a mission today." Shikamaru explained. "Hey, wanna play with me?"_

"Uhm… sure."

But unfortunately, I lost against him. My ego wasn't able to handle the lost so I challenged him on the week after that. And guess what? I lost again. I challenged him over and over again for a few weeks that I finally decided to give-up winning. But it grew a habit over us to meet and play Shogi every Saturday. So… that's the story."

* * *

After explanation, there was still a little chat with about how did Naruto, Chouji, Ino, Sasuke, Kakashi and Asuma did not know about this and why did they not tell them. The two teenagers in question simply shrugged and said. "You never asked." After that, Sakura bid goodbye to all of them, saying that she was tired already and that she wanted to go to bed early today.

* * *

After changing into her pajamas, Sakura slumped down onto her bed with her eyes wide open. She lied about saying that she wanted to go to bed earlier. She simply wanted to be left alone so that she could think, think about the mission. 

_"I want to go on the mission."_

"_**So go already! What's stopping you?"**_

"_But if I go, I will have to leave, and I will miss everyone."_

"_**Then don't go."**_

"But I really want to go."

"**Geez, this is getting us no where. Why on earth do you want to go on the mission anyway?"**

"I don't know. I just have this feeling deep inside me that's burning to accept the mission. And if I go, I might get the opportunity to improve my genjutsu and taijutsu. And who knows? I might even pick up some new jutsus on the way."

"**Then go! It's not like you haven't tasted loneliness before. And you want to improve yourself don't you? This is a great opportunity for you."**

"But…"

And it goes on and on until Sakura finally drifted off to dreamland.

**END OF THE CHAPTER**

**Once again I would like to thank my faithful readers and reviewers. Dont forget to read and review this chappie! **

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

**A small note from the authoress: **For some of you who hasnt read the summary, I would just like to inform you that I've already put the pairings. It's SasuXSaku, ShikaXIno and NaruXHina. But the pairing shall be put into action in some latter chapters, so please be patient and bear with me. Dont worry, the climax of my story shall soon be revealed. That's all. Enjoy! Right, another thing before I forget, this fic is **NOT** for Sakura haters.

Some Japanese terms used in these chapter:

Ohayo gozaimasu- good morning

Domo arigatou- thank you very much

Kuso- darn it

teme- bastard

demo-but

That's about it, I guess. Just tell me if I missed some terms that you dont know

**

* * *

Chapter 6: "A sp-spar!"  
**

It's a lovely Saturday morning today in Konoha. The bright sun shines brightly as the gentle breeze blows gently.

Sakura is now holding a paper in her hand while she is walking away from Shikamaru's meeting place. Why? A few minutes earlier today, Sakura went to their meeting place and found a note lying on the grass that was addressed to: Sakura. After opening it and reading it a 2 to 3 times, she put it in her pocket, sighed and left.

For the 5th time this morning, Sakura sighed again as she walked, she took out the piece of paper that was left for her. She read it in her mind:

_Sakura, _

_Sorry, I can't play with you today. My troublesome mom just gave me some troublesome chores this morning. Unfortunately, I have to finish these by lunchtime. Again, I'm really sorry about this._

_Shikamaru_

After reading it, she sighed heavily again. She didn't know what to do now. She was expecting that she would be playing some Shogi with Shikamaru today so that she would be able to keep her mind off the "mission". She really didn't want to think about it, not today. She still has 5 days to decide. So, she'll just leave it until Wednesday or so… _"Now what am I gonna do today? I want to relax my mind. I can go to Suzuhara Archery Dojo. Yes, that would be simply nice."_ Archery? Yeah, Sakura really likes it. Shooting arrows relaxes her mind and clears her mind with certain things.

In no time at all, she arrived at the entrance of the Archery Dojo and was greeted by the owner. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Sakura dear," said the old lady with a tight bun on her hair.

"Ohayo gozaimasu!"

"So, shall I prepare the things you need?"

"Yes please."

The old lady bent walked away from her table and went to another room. She walked out carrying a big wooden bow and a container with lots of arrows. "Will this do?"

"Hai! Domo arigatou."

"Your welcome."

Sakura walked away from the old lady's table and went to a different room as she carried the bow and arrows. The room was extremely large and has no rooftops at all. Its floor is made out of wood. At the other side of the room, its wall hung lots of targets. At the edge of the room, was a young man about 2 years younger than her. His name is Suzuhara Akira. He is the grandson of the owner of this dojo. He helps his Grandma manage this dojo. He waved at her. Sakura, in return gave him a sweet smile.

She did not bother changing into the traditional Japanese outfit in archery_. "That would be too troubleso- did I just say that? No way."_ Instead, she wore here usual training outfit as always, a red sleeveless top and a brown skirt with slits on its sides. She hung the container of the arrows on her back and took her place at the far end of the hall. She stood straight as she raised her bow; she took an arrow from her back and stretched the strings of the bow. She aimed at the target and let go of the arrow. _Shoot!_ It hit the target; it was simply to the bull's eye. As if she was not contented, she quickly took another arrow from her back and aimed again. This time while she was aiming, she tried to relax her shoulders a little bit. Her grip on the arrow was firm as she tried to aim more accurately, she thought, _"Okay, Sakura. Relax. Try to-"_

But her mind was interrupted by 2 loud voices calling her, **"SAKURA-CHAN/SAN!"** Because of this, Sakura's finger slightly slipped through her fingers and_ shoot!_ It went straight to the target and next to the first arrow she shot a while ago.

"Tch," that was all Sakura managed to say with her frustration. _**" Kuso...Who the heck was that?" **she thought. _Sakura slowly turned her head around to see who it was. "Naruto and Lee-san?" who were rushing towards her. And behind them, who was looking rather enthusiastic is "Gai-sensei?" He was closely followed by 4 bored looking "Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun, Tenten-san and Neji-san too! What are all of YOU doing here?"

"What does it look like to you?" said Kakashi in a rather sarcastic tone. Sakura raised a brow. He sighed and pointed on his outfit. He was wearing his forehead protector and mask as usual… he wore white smooth robes; which slightly revealed his chest. He also wore a white pants to match with a black strip of cloth wrapped around his waist. He was wearing an archery outfit. She glanced at the others to see that Gai is also wearing the same thing. But Naruto and the others were just wearing their usual training outfit. But Lee-san is holding 2 bows and container of arrows.

Sakura raised her brow higher(if that was possible). "Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei are here to practice their aiming?" she said in an uncertain tone.

"Not really," said Gai in his usual enthusiastic tone. "You see, I, the great Green Beast of Konoha, challenged my eternal rival, Hatake Kakashi, in an archery match." He did his infamous "nice guys pose" and said, "With now 70 wins and 70 loses, I shall settle this once and for all of whom is the strongest between us! Yoshi, Kakashi! I will surely beat you today!" He glanced at Kakashi who was now reading his Icha Icha book.

Kakashi looked up from his book and said, "Sorry, I wasn't listening. Were you saying something?"

Gai fell on the floor anime style.

Sakura sweatdropped. "Ah…" She walked slowly and quietly to her teammates and Gai's team as well. "What are all of you doing here?"

"We were FORCED to come," said Tenten in a passive tone as if it always happens.

"Forced?"

"Yeah. By Thick-brow's sensei!" said Naruto as he clenched his teeth. "Well, early this morning, I was treating Sasuke some ramen because I have a very kind and pure-hearted soul-"

Sasuke forced a snort and glared at Naruto.

"O-okay!" yelled Naruto in frustration. "I was treating Sasuke because a lost to a bet with him. Anyway, while we were eating, these people (pointing at Neji, Tenten, Lee, Kakashi and Gai) bursted in at Ichiraku's. Then Thick-brow's sensei says that we have to go along with them so that we can be the witnesses of Kakashi-sensei's defeat…"

"I see…"

"You should be thankful. It is a great honor match to be able to witness a fight between our dear sensei and Kakashi." Said Lee.

"Uh-huh…"

"Can we PLEASE get on with this, Gai?" asked Kakashi. "I have certain things to do."

"Nonsense." Answered Gai. "You are just going to read your low rated book again."

"Whatever." Sasuke said impatiently. "Why don't you just get on with it?"

"Yeah," Neji agreed. "You're just wasting our time."

"Tsk! Tsk!" Gai smiled at the two heartthrobs. "Where are your spirits of youth?"

Sakura's instincts told her to go now before she too would be forced to stay and watch them. And anyway, how will she be able to concentrate in _her_ aiming with all these noise. "Err… I think I'll be going now." Sakura said shortly as she tried to walk off.

"Why don't you join us?" Gai said.

"Uhmm… no thanks…"

"Don't you think it's a great honor to be able to watch our match?"

"O-of course I do…" Sakura lied. The only ones who believed her words were Lee and Gai-sensei. Sakura didn't want to hurt their feelings.

"Then come and watch us."

"But…. but" Sakura quickly thought of a lie, "demo… it's too great of an honor for me to watch. I don't think I have the right to watch your match.

Tenten let off a loud cough. Obviously, she didn't believe a word Sakura said and neither did Sasuke, Naruto, Neji and Kakashi. Again, only Lee and Gai seemed to believe her.

"Don't worry," Gai patted her shoulder, " I think you are worthy enough to watch our match. I know that you want to prove to me that you are worthy, but let's save that after my match."

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked quickly.

"So that you can prove it to me, Lee shall spar with you later on after we finish this."

"W-what! A sp-spar!" Sakura started to panic. "But I- well you see-I-I really-"

"Don't worry," Lee said in his good guy pose. "I know that you are worried that I will go easy on you. But fear not. For I, Rock Lee of the Hidden Leaf Village, shall vow to go all out on you later in our spar."

"Ahehehe," Sakura laughed nervously. She glanced at her sensei, her upperclassman (Neji, he's a jounin, right?) and her fellow chuunins (except for Lee) with a please-help-me look on her face. They all shrugged and looked away from her.

After Kakashi has defeated Gai, who was unable to accept his defeat until Lee mentioned the spar, they exited the dojo and walked to a nearby training ground. On their way there…

Gai and Lee both looked so enthusiastic as they walked in front leading the way to the training ground. The rest of them were farther away at the back.

"So Sakura-san," Tenten inquired. "What are you going to do?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, how are you going to defeat Lee?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Honestly speaking, I have no intension of sparring with Lee." Sakura said in an as a matter of fact one.

"Then what are you going to do about it?" Kakashi asked Sakura in a daring tone.

"Well, I've already formulated a plan." Sakura smiled.

"What are you planning then?" the Hyuuga prodigy shot as soon as he heard the word "plan".

"Plan A is…. as soon as we get to the training grounds I am going to say that my head suddenly aches and that I don't think I can fight."

All of them sweatdropped. She calls that a plan?

"And do you have a Plan B?" Sasuke asked, hoping that she has a better plan.

"As a matter of fact I do," Sakura said cheerfully. "In case it doesn't work, my Plan B shall take place when we start the spar." She explained, "I am going to make an opening for myself and get Lee to hit me, then when he hits me I'm going to fake an injury and say that I can't fight anymore."

Another lame plan… For god sake, she's a medical ninja! When she injures herself, she can simply heal herself, can she not?

"Yes, I know that all of you think that my plans are totally lame, but what do you suggest me to do?"

"Suit yourself." Tenten shrugged.

They all kept quiet until they got there.

"Isn't it nice here?" Gai said, again doing his nice guy pose.

"**_Yoshi! Time for me to set Plan A into pace."_ **"Ahhh…." Sakura said weakly, holding her head.

Kakashi, Tenten, Naruto, Sasuke and Neji simply observed Sakura in one side. _"Not bad,"_ they all thought.

"Is something wrong, Sakura-san?" Lee asked in a worried voice.

"I…" Sakura closed her eyes, "I think my head's swirling…"

"Is that so?" Lee said. "Gai-sensei, I don't we should continue our spar."

"What spar?" a new voice asked.

Sakura opened her eyes to see her rival, Ino, walking towards them.

"Oh, Ino-san," called Lee. "We were suppose to have a spar today, but since Sakura's not feeling well…"

"We should cancel the spar." Gai finished the sentence.

"Hmph!" Ino smirked. "You should really cancel the spar. I'm sure Thick Brows can easily defeat Big Forehead."

"HELL NO!" Inner Sakura took over her. Did Ino just call her weak? Even Sakura herself is a little anxious at this. "I can still have a spar! Let's get this on with it, Lee-san!" she said firmly.

"Yatta!" Lee cheered. "Okay, let's start."

"Foolish girl," Neji said in a small voice. "Letting her ego take over…"

"Hey, don't call MY Sakura foolish," snobbed Naruto.

"Foolish," Neji repeated. Then he suddenly smirked, "But I like her guts."

**END OF THE CHAPTER**

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AN: **Again I would like to thank all my faithful readers. Im in a hurry so I wont put them here anymore. I hope that's okay. And sorry if there are lots of typos and gramatical errors. I was in a hurry in typing this coz my parents doesnt know anything about me posting fanfics and I have to hide the it from them. Anyway, as long as my readers are happy, I think that all this hardwork is paying off. I'll try to update ASAP! Read and Review!

**P.S.** : Any Filipinos out there? If there is, would you kindly tell me what "pitik" is in English? Thank you !


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